


Sprained Ankles Lead to Snuggles?

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Series: Polyamory AU [4]
Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Female Character of Color, Bisexual Female Deaf Character, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexual Male Character of Color, Canon Character of Color, Cuddling & Snuggling, Deaf Character, Demisexual Male Character, Demisexual Male Character of Color, Established Relationship, Fluff, Food mention, Greyasexual Female Character, Greyasexual Female Character of Color, Injury, Interracial Relationship, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory, Sharing a Bed, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-27 02:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18295196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: On a skiing trip with Linda, Olivia, Luis, Maria, and David, Bob sprains his ankle. Giving the six of them the opportunity to do something they've been wanting to do for a while. Share a bed.





	Sprained Ankles Lead to Snuggles?

“I _told_ you guys someone was going to get hurt,” Olivia said. Signing for Linda, who just rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Hey, you wanted to come skiing too,” Maria retorted.

“Yes, but I said we needed to learn how to ski BEFORE we went to spend the weekend in the mountains. Or at least get Bob some padding.”

“I’m right here,” Bob said grumpily from sitting up on his bed where the others had carefully helped him. “I can hear you, you know.”

“If you didn’t want to hear ‘I told you so’ you shouldn’t have gone down a slope you weren’t ready for.” Luis told him while he rinsed the coca mugs.

“So I overestimated my abilities.”

David rolled his eyes, “You tried to go down the black diamond. _Of course_ you sprained your ankle.”

“I’m hurt and you guys are making fun.” Bob pouted slightly.

Linda, who had been sitting on the corner of his bed, snuggled closer. “ _Aww_ , _do you need affection?_ ”

“ _Always._ ” Bob put his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders and gave her a brief kiss. “See?” He said to the other four, “Linda loves me. Why don’t the rest of you?”

“We’re too worried about how much Susan is going to lecture when we get home,” David shot back before anyone else could even think of a reply.

“She’s not going to scold you guys,” Bob assured him. “She’s just going to scold me for not being careful.”

“At least you admit that.” Maria shook her head. “What on earth were you thinking?”

“I told you. I thought I could ski better than I could,” Bob repeated. “It was an easy mistake.”

“Well, mistake or not,” David told him. “We’re going to look after you until we get back to Sesame Street and Susan can keep an eye on you.”

“Oh honestly, guys. This is silly,” Bob said. “I can get up.” He made an attempt to get out of bed, only to be stopped by Linda holding onto his arm.

“ _Oh no you don’t. The doctor said you needed to rest that ankle, and I am NOT going to let you make it worse and have Susan yell at me._ ”

“ _You sure you can handle Bob there, Linda?_ ” Olivia teased.

Luis smirked, “ _Yeah, no offense, but you’re a lot smaller than he is. If Bob wants to get up, I’m not sure you’re heavy enough to stop him._ ”

“ _Oh, I don’t know_ ,” Linda said with a matching smirk. “ _Maybe you guys should come over here and help me_.”

Luis, Olivia, Maria, and David exchanged glances before quickly joining the other two on Bob’s bed. It was a bit crowded, but they all fit.

“Guys!” Bob protested, though not as hard as he could have.

Luis set his hand on Bob’s shoulder. “Shhh.”

David, squished in between the other two men, snuggled in. “This is much comfier than I would have expected.”

“It really is,” Olivia agreed from her space on Linda’s other side.

Maria, next to Olivia, nodded. “And warmer. Even with the heater it’s kind of cold in this cabin.”

Bob shrugged and made a joke. “Well, I did want cuddles, but I wasn’t really expecting them to be from _all_ of you at once.”

“ _Hey, you weren’t listening when we told you not to get up,”_ Linda pointed out. “ _If it takes cuddles to keep you in place, that’s what you get._ ”

Bob had to laugh. “If I’d known that was what it took to get us all sharing a bed, I’d have hurt my ankle weeks ago.”

Olivia swatted him. “Don’t even joke about that. It worries us when you get hurt.”

Bob looked at her softly. “I know it does. I don’t get hurt on purpose, but I do like having you all fuss over me.”

“That sure sounds like you do it on purpose to me,” Maria teased him.

Bob pretended to take offense. “Well if you don’t want to believe me I’m not going to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah, for all of what?” she asked. “Three seconds?”

“Hey!”

“She has a point,” David put in.

“Yeah,” Luis agreed. “You’re not very good at being quiet.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t talk to you guys,” Bob retorted. “Just to Maria.”

“And the second she said anything you’d respond and there goes the silent treatment,” Olivia noted. “We know you. You can’t hold a grudge.”

“You don’t even have a grudge,” Maria pointed out. “We all know you were kidding.”

Bob pouted. “You guys are being mean to me.” Then he laughed. “You’re right though. You guys know me too well.”

“We’ve always been good at reading each other,” Olivia said. “Even before we all got together.”

Linda agreed. “ _Although not all of us were very good at recognizing that our feelings are returned._ ”

Linda and Olivia nodded at each other. Well aware that they were the only two who had not been ridiculous about starting the relationship.

“Hey!” The other four protested at once.

Olivia shrugged, “We’re just telling it like it is.”

“ _Considering how ridiculous you all were, you should be very glad that we’re patient and that we love you_ ,” Linda signed. “ _If we weren’t so patient, we’d have given up and then we never would have gotten together._ ”

“You two have a point,” Maria said. “I might have figured it out before the guys did, but it definitely took a while.”

“But we finally got together and now we’re finally sharing a bed,” Luis said. “That’s the important thing.”

“It is,” David agreed.

“ _Remember the first time the two of us shared a bed?_ ” Linda asked Bob.

Bob nodded. “ _Yeah. It was nice._ ”

“ _Once you got the hint anyway. He kept trying to give me lots of space and not understanding that I wanted to cuddle._ ” Linda signed, addressing the other four.

“ _I’m a gentleman,_ ” Bob protested.

Linda giggled. “ _You’re a nuisance is what you are._ ” She kissed his cheek to show that she wasn’t serious.

“Those two had the opposite problem,” Maria teased, gesturing across the bed at Luis and David. “I love being snuggled, but not quite so tightly. I trained them out of it though, you guys are welcome.”

“Trying to give us candy as ‘rewards’ for not squishing you was a bit unnecessary though,” Luis said.

David quickly shushed his boyfriend. “Don’t say that. What are you trying to do? Make Maria _stop_ giving us candy?”

Olivia laughed. “Sharing a bed with all six of you at once. What am I thinking?”

“ _That we’re the best,_ ” Linda signed. “ _That’s what you’re thinking._ ”

“ _I certainly can’t disagree with that logic,_ ” Olivia replied. “ _I do wonder what I’ve gotten myself in for though_.”

Maria hugged her. “Cuddles,” she said. “You’ve gotten yourself in for lots and lots of cuddles.”

Linda hugged Olivia and Maria as well. “ _Bob’s right. Why haven’t we done this sooner?_ ”

“Because we’ve always been busy,” David said, snuggling against Bob’s side.

Luis nodded, fingers playing in David’s hair. “At least one of us has always had someplace to be.”

“This is important though,” Bob said, reaching for Luis with one hand and Olivia with the other. “When we get home we need to make room in our schedules for regular cuddle sessions. That’s what I did with Susan and Gordon.”

“Good idea,” Maria said.

The other four agreed immediately. Then David laughed, “It is a little weird to remember you’re also dating Susan and Gordon though. Considering that they’re almost like parents to the rest of us.”

“Well, you could have tried _not_ falling in love with me,” Bob teased.

“We’ll keep that in mind for the next time,” Luis teased right back.

“ _Hey now,_ ” Linda chided David gently. “ _You did tell us that Bob’s relationship with Susan and Gordon reassured you that polyamory could work and work well._ ”

“That’s true,” David agreed readily. “I wasn’t too sure it could last. But then I remembered that Susan, Gordon, and Bob have been together for over a decade and I knew we’d be fine. So, thanks for dating Susan and Gordon, Bob.”

Bob laughed. “Anytime.”

Olivia rested her hand on Bob’s shoulder. “If anyone had told me that I would end up in a relationship with my brother and sister-in-law’s boyfriend, I would have said they were completely wrong. But now that we’re dating, it all makes perfect sense.”

Bob grinned at her, “I wouldn’t have expected to be dating Gordon’s ‘little’ sister either.” He made air quotes around the word little, after all, she was the same height as him. “But I’m glad I am.”

“Me too.”

“We’ll figure out a plan for cuddles,” Maria said. “I know we’re all busy people, but we’ll make time. Like Bob said, this is important.”

“We can synchronize our watches,” Luis said.

David chuckled, “I don’t think we have to be _that_ precise.” He winked at Luis to let him know he was kidding.

“No, but we can definitely look at our calendars and plan for cuddles just like we do for dates.”

“We plan dates?” Bob asked, in tones of mock surprise. “I thought they just appeared on my calendar magically.”

“ _That’s because I write them in when you’re not looking._ ”

“Mystery solved!” Bob declared as everyone laughed. “Linda plans dates behind our backs and schedules them before we know what’s going on.”

“ _How else would we ever get anything planned?_ ” Linda asked, trying to look innocent and failing miserably.

Bob just hugged her. “Tomorrow,” he said. “Planning time.”

“Planning time,” the others agreed.

David yawned.

“We can talk about this some more in the morning,” Olivia said. “We better get some sleep.”

Everyone agreed. It was pretty late and they had a long trip home. Made even more complicated by Bob’s injured ankle.

“You guys should get back to your own beds,” Bob said.

The others nodded, but no one moved.

“It’s really comfortable here,” Luis said.

“And we _have_ been wanting to all a share a bed for a change,” Maria pointed out.

“ _I vote we all stay here_ ,” Linda suggested. “ _Unless you mind, Bob. It is your bed._ ”

Bob shook his head. “ _I don’t mind at all. This is really nice. Everyone who wants to keep sharing a bed sign ‘yes.’_ ”

“ _Yes!_ ” Everyone signed together.

Maria slipped out of the bed long enough to turn out the lights before crawling back under the blankets and snuggling against Olivia’s side, reaching out to squeeze Linda’s hand.

For a moment everyone shifted position until they were comfortable, then it was quiet. The six of them enjoying cuddling up together.

“I love you guys,” Bob said. Signing for Linda in the light from the moon.

**Author's Note:**

> Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters S and C and by the number 2. And by the sentence, “And there was only one bed.”
> 
> A black diamond was the toughest level ski slope at that time. The harder double black diamond rank was created in the 80s.
> 
> I had written as far as “Even with the heater it’s kind of cold in this cabin,” And the last several sentences of the story before I realized that this wasn’t a get-together story, it was an established relationship fic. I don’t know how I missed that before.
> 
> Maria and Bob being sibling-like and teasing each other gives me such joy.
> 
> It occurs to me that there’s a couple of points where people are talking but clearly not signing. Just assume that someone else is translating for Linda.
> 
> I agonized and agonized over whether or not to leave that the last line. It wasn’t supposed to be, but it worked so well and I finally decided to keep it.


End file.
